Photos: World's Unusual Treehouses

Alasdair Jardine

World's Unusual Treehouses

"People think ‘treehouse' and imagine creaky plywood forts where kids sneak away to have their first kiss," said Roderick Romero, the Manhattan designer who built that Long Island aerie in 2009. "But it's moved so far beyond that."

Above and beyond, actually. A new generation of luxury treehouses is elevating the dream, with designs and prices no sidewalk lemonade stand could finance.

Baumraum

Cone Treehouse

“With the modern tree dwellings we’re building, it’s architecture meets high adventure,” says Andrea Wenning of Germany’s Baumraum, the firm behind this rendering. “These are fantasy cocoons, limited only by a client’s imagination and budget.” Projects start at $300,000.

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Alasdair Jardine

Baumraum

The Bremen, Germany, firm specializes in tree pods. Using a technique called “arboriculture,” the company aims to integrate each design into the surroundings. Next up: a futuristic tree inn outside Pensacola, Florida.

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Alnwick Garden

This public-access “tree village,” commissioned for about $7 million by the Duchess of Northumberland, is balanced high in the copse of 16 mature lime trees at England’s rural Alnwick Garden. It features soaring, turreted buildings, one with a dining room for 80, all linked by 4,000 square feet of suspended walkways.

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Alasdair Jardine

Above The Forest Floor

This Baumraum project in rural Germany features upper and lower terraces (not to mention a nice view.) “In a treehouse, you’re not on the ground and you’re not flying,” says Andreas Wenning of Baumraum. “It’s somewhere in the middle--like floating between Earth and heaven.”

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Lukasz Kos

Ontario Outpost

This three-story treehouse is suspended on cables to reduce the number of holes in its four trees.

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